CultureGrrl in Academia: You Get What You Need

I didn't get what I wanted: I had applied for an available faculty position in the arts journalism program at my alma mater, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and got rejected Monday. They have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about the reasons behind their decisions, but I suspect my lack of university teaching experience didn't help me.

I put that behind me, as best I could, and prepared for my university teaching debut the very next day at Seton Hall, South Orange, NJ. Out of the blue, two months ago, Steven Miller, an adjunct faculty member and executive director of the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, had asked me to be a "surprise guest" at his seminar in the Graduate School Program in Museum Professions. He assured me that his class would be "very excited" when they discovered that their mystery visitor was CultureGrrl.

More than a little dubious, I walked in, sat down at the desk in front of the room, and saw that the class was uniformly nonplussed. They were expecting Philippe de Montebello, maybe?

Then Miller announced, "Our guest speaker today is CultureGrrl." Everyone's face instantly lit up and I was engulfed in a gush of warm welcome. I guess I don't look like that picture of me in the right column, relaxed and windswept in Colorado.

For my topic I chose "Whose Collection Is It?" as a springboard for examining a succession of hot-button, thorny issues in collections management---responsibilities of trustees and staff, donor restrictions, fractional gifts, copyright, moral rights, claims by victims of theft (including Nazi vicitims and heirs), antiquities claims by source countries, the State Attorneys General's actions (and lack thereof) in protecting the public patrimony.

I was startled and impressed with the students' breadth of knowledge (including some rather technical legal concepts) and the insightfulness of their questions and comments. Who needs the Ivy League?

Afterwards, when the students took a break before their next discussion, I asked how I could improve CultureGrrl, figuring they know more about the online world than I do. The consensus was that my blog needed more interactivity.

Point taken: I have always welcomed comments sent by e-mail, some of which I post as BlogBacks. I now plan to add a permanent call for e-mailed comments in my righthand column. I hope to append a wider variety of reader responses than I have previously published, which you will be able to access by clicking a link at the bottom of the relevant post.

The students said I have a "classy blog," and I hope for some classy comments. Theirs was a classy class, and as an empty nester, I reveled in the too infrequent chance to have quality time with an enthusiastic (and even admiring) group of young people.

On Monday, I didn't get what I want. On Tuesday, I got what I need.